Goats and Donkeys Transform Lives in Darfur

Good progress is being made in the three new villages - Tikailat, Abu Nahla and Khreiban - which were brought into the programme earlier in the year. The Programme Manager has been able to visit the villages on several occasions and the communities are very enthusiastic about the project. One meeting in Khreiban was attended by 955 persons - 395 men, 450 women and 110 children. All three villages have now selected the families which will receive goat and donkey loans - these are the poorest 10% of the households in the villages. However, before we provide the animals we need to ensure that the necessary support facilities are available in the villages to maintain the health and productivity of the animals. We do this by training all the recipient families in improved animal husbandry techniques and by training 2 villagers as paravets to treat the animals should they become sick. This training will commence shortly and it will include separate training sessions for the children as they are heavily involved in caring for the animals and are well placed to detect the early signs of sickness. All the villages have selected their paravets and the training will take place in the next few weeks. On completion the paravets will be provided with a basic kit of equipment and a cross bred donkey so that they can reach families with sick animals speedily. Once the paravets have been trained, we will establish a revolving veterinary drugs fund for each village so that families have ready access to the basic medicines if their animals are sick. This fund is self-sustaining as the charges for the drugs enable the paravets to replenish the stocks.

The Programme Manager is also discussing with the communities the mechanism for purchasing the animals. If good quality animals are available in the local market, the recipient families will be assisted to select their animals which will be purchased by the Animal Loans Committee. The paravet will ensure that the animals are healthy prior to purchase. If good animals are not available locally the Programme Manager will arrange for contractors to purchase the animals further afield. All the households are eagerly awaiting their animals as they know that they will make such a difference to their lives.

VERY MANY THANKS TO YOU ALL - WE COULD NOT DO THIS WITHOUT YOU AND YOU ARE REALLY HELPING TO TRANSFORM THE LIVES OF SOME OF THE MOST VULNERABLE PEOPLE IN DARFUR. BUT STILL MORE FAMILIES NEED OUR, AND YOUR, HELP